An Opaque Heart
by Joushou-Sensei
Summary: "How am I supposed to hit that? It's too fast." She said frowning, Tokuchi's grin widened and he shook with quiet laughter. Akira picked up the ball and threw it to him gently. "Just keep your eye on it." Tokuchi said condescendingly. Tokuchi X OC
1. Delinquent in Reform

An Opaque Heart

Ch. 1 Delinquent in Reform

* * *

Kusanagi Akira sighed loudly, and readjusted her school bag on her shoulder. It had been another long day, and High school was wearing her out. She had never really been the most academically inclined person, that is to say, Akira was known for her street smarts and her killer right hook.

It was difficult to say the least to stay out of trouble, at least for her. All through middle school she had a pretty bad reputation, always getting in trouble. She was of course always able to talk her way out of it though; some people were just too easy to influence especially teachers.

She had decided though, that she would do her best to graduate high school without incident and get into a good university. It was the least she could do.

Akira walked through the schools front gates and towards her grandfather's house, other kids staying clear of her. She had cut off most of her bleached hair, and it was now quite short barely brushing her chin, a black headband holding her bangs back. She was taller than most girls, and always held and air of confidence about her that some called arrogance. Her eyes, a deep shade of blue, were sharp and clear but wide. Her mouth was perpetually set in a firm straight line, though she did smile a lot just not at school, while her cheek bones were set high. She generally had an apathetic look about her, but most kids at her school knew the devilish look that would creep onto her face. Knew the smirk that she could display, and the fear that would paralyze you if you were caught in her glare.

Honestly Akira hadn't used that glare in a long time. She had stopped fighting; smoking, stealing, gambling and she had stepped down as leader of the eastside gang. People still avoided her though, like she was the plague. She didn't blame them, and found the solitude that came with that helped her to see clearly the situations around her. If anything she almost relished it.

Why? Why would someone who had the whole town under her thumb simply decide that they didn't want that power anymore? A lot of people asked her that, but she had just smiled shrugged her shoulders and would say 'Who knows?'

Akira's grandfather, Ryuji, was the owner of a small restaurant in the middle of town. At least that was what most people knew, what they didn't know was that he was once a very powerful member of the Okinawa yakuza. He had however left on good terms, when he was in his thirties and started his own business. Now he is the sole guardian for Akira.

Akira walked towards home in a daze thinking over the math problems she would have to solve for homework, her face in a slight frown as she thought. Of all the subjects, she hated math the most.

"Ah, welcome back Akira-chan." Akira looked up to see the flower shop owner, and older woman, waving to her. Akira's frown turned into a smile and she waved back.

"Thanks." She said walking past the kind woman. The other shop owners on the street who knew her, liked her and usually waved to her as she walked to and from school. They had all had a prejudice against her when she had first moved in, but the respect they all held for Ryuji held their comments back and after a time they eventually learned that Akira was a pretty good kid.

"I'm home." Akira called when she opened the front door to the restaurant. She and her grandfather lived upstairs, while downstairs was the shop. The shop was designed with wood accents, and traditional low tables and cushions to sit on, to the right, while to the left was a sushi bar with stools and a large tv placed on the wall. A few heads turned as she closed the door, customers who waved to her, and her gramps who was behind the bar. He was dressed in a white shirt, and had a blue handkerchief on his head, he too waved to her.

"Welcome back." He said smiling at her. Akira walked past all the tables and into the large kitchen, were Yasuki Teruka, a hired chef and good family friend was working on some curry.

"Yo." He said simply as she walked past him and to the stairs, that she quickly climbed after replying with a 'Yo.' of her own. Teruka, who is in his late twenties, was like an uncle to Akira.

She quickly sat her bag down in her room and slipped out of her school uniform. She then got dressed in black pants, a dark blue t-shirt and non-slip shoes before checking her hair and heading downstairs. She grabbed a black apron and tied it around her waist, grabbed a tray and went to bus tables and take orders.

"How was school?" Her grandpa asked after she had finished her little chores.

"Boring." She replied taking a seat on a vacant stool, behind gramps a baseball game was on the tv.

"Do you have homework?" He asked molding rice in his hand and then adding a thin slice of tuna to the top. Akira gave a groan and nodded.

"I have math homework, I think my head might explode if I do it though." She said frowning and making a show of her displeasure. Gramps gave a laugh and shook his head before handing her a plate of assorted sushi.

"Table two." He said as she took it from him and walked to the assigned table and serving the young couple their order.

As seven o'clock rolled around and the rush died down Gramps told Akira she was done for the day.

She went upstairs and grabbed a light jacket before heading outside for a walk in the crisp night air. Usually she would have walked down the street and back, but today she wanted to prolong her time outside to avoid the thinking she was going to have to do when she got back. So, she went to opposite way towards the river.

Akira stuffed her hands into her the pockets of her jacket and snuggled closer to herself, the air unusually cold. Walking along the roadside she could see a yellow glow up a head and could hear shouts and cheers. Walking closer she could see a baseball field that a handful of people were using, but no one was in the outfield or on the bases. There was just a pitcher and a batter, and everyone else watched cheering the two on.

Curious Akira walked closer and joined the group, who only gave her a glance but otherwise ignoring the new addition. The batter was a rather bulky young man, in his late teens; he was practicing his swing before stepping up to the home plate. The pitcher was also rather tall, though not as tall as the batter, and rather lanky but had a confidence about him that Akira recognized.

"Two thousand yen on Tokuchi." One man said, setting off the shouts of bets for the two players. Akira looked back to the pitcher's mound; the boy couldn't have been that much older than her. His hair was bleached, and messy, his face a completely calm mask. Akira could see the glint in his steel like eyes, he was completely confident that he would win whatever game they were playing. She looked to her left and found a boy a bit older than her.

"Excuse me, what's going on?" She asked him; gaining the guys attention he gave her a friendly smile.

"One outs, it's a game between the pitcher and the batter." He said pointing towards the players with his thumb. Akira nodded in understanding and focused on the game again.

"How does it work?" She asked him watching as the pitcher wound up and pitched the ball to the batter who swung and missed earning a few shouts and laughs.

"Well, if the batter can hit the ball past the infield, or is pitched four balls he wins. If the pitcher strikes him out, or the batter hits the ball into the infield then the pitcher wins. That's the jist of it, but the batter here, is going to lose." He said after explaining the rules. Akira watched as the batter again swung at the ball and missed.

"Why's that?" she asked looking up at the guy next to her, who smirked and looked at her sideways.

"Because you see that pitcher? That's Tokuchi Toua, and no one has ever beaten him." He said with a praising voice that a parent would use to brag about their child. Akira nodded and watched as Tokuchi pitched the third pitch and again almost magically the batter missed.

"See?" The guy next her collected his winnings from another guy before turning back to her.

"I haven't seen you around before, I'm Nurita Kai." He said holding out his hand to shake hers, and Akira took the offered hand and shook it firmly.  
"Kusanagi Akira, I live down the road." She said with a small smile, it was nice meeting new people, people who didn't know anything about her. Kai grinned at her and nodded towards the field.

"Want to give it a go?" He asked her. Akira's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"Oh, I don't think so; I'm not that good at sports." She said before laughing good naturedly. Kai nodded in understanding and just then another batter stepped up to take on Tokuchi.

"Well then, how about a bet?" Kai asked her placing his own. Akira stuck a hand into her pants pocket and pulled out a five hundred yen coin and held it up to Kai with a small laugh.

"This is all I've got on me at the moment." She said with a sheepish look. Kai looked at her money for a moment before bursting out in laughter and patting her shoulder friendly as tears formed at the corner of his brown eyes. Most everyone had heard the commotion, even the batter and Tokuchi and now everyone's eyes were on Akira and Kai.

"Alright then, let's turn that five hundred into a thousand shall we?" He asked taking her coin and turning it into the same man he gave money to earlier. The man looked at him like he was crazy but took the money without saying a thing. Kai stood behind Akira and placed his hands on each of her shoulders and gently guided her forwards through the crowd till she and he stood at the fence behind the home plate.

"Oi, Tokuchi! Akira-chan is betting on you, better not lose!" Kai shouted to the blonde boy, who looked from Kai to Akira who was a bit red in the face. She sent Tokuchi a small smile and a wave, which he ignored.

"Don't worry, he'll win for sure." Kai said as he crossed his arms and winked at her.

It wasn't really a surprise that Tokuchi won, with just three pitches, to anyone there but Akira. She watched on amazed and when Kai handed her a thousand yen banknote she frowned.

"Hey what's with that face?" Kai asked as the crowd began to disperse as the field's lights went out. Kai who she noted was rather good looking with his shaggy black hair and friendly face, asked.

"It's just that I'm not really supposed to gamble, a rule of the family." She said staring at the money. Kai again tossed his head back and laughed loudly, he apparently didn't know that he drew a lot of attention that way.

"Oh that's funny! You know I like you Akira-chan, your funny girl." He said catching his breath as he tucked a wad of cash into his back pocket. He slung an arm around her shoulders and stirred her towards a small bunch of guys near the dugout.

"I want to introduce you to my friends." He said cheerfully as Akira's face turned a nice shade of pink. It wasn't that she wasn't used to boys, on the contrary back in middle school she had a whole class full at her beck and call, and plenty others wishing they were. Kai however was extremely friendly a flirt even and was treating her accordingly, so even though she was blushing at the attention she had a smile in place.

"Hey guys!" He said loudly gaining their attention. Akira's eyes instinctively counted how many boys there were, how strong they looked, how fast, and then settled on Tokuchi who had a lit cigarette in his mouth and a baseball in one hand. There were, excluding Tokuchi, four other boys in the dugout. A taller boy with rather dreamy look on his face, a shorter boy with strikingly sharp features, and then two other boys who looked very similar to one another, she guessed that they were brothers or at least related. They all looked up from a card game, and each gave her a once over.

"Eh? Who's the girl Kai?" the shorter boy asked throwing a card down onto a makeshift table. Kai pushed Akira forwards as if presenting her.

"This is Akira-chan, a new friend of mine, be nice to her." He said as Akira gave them a small bashful wave. One of the brothers shook his head with a sigh.

"Did he kidnap you?" He asked almost seriously.

"Oi, Hotaru!" Kai protested hotly with a frown. The boy Hotaru shrugged his shoulders but sent a smile towards Akira.

"Actually, he was explaining the game to me." She said explaining the situation to Hotaru.

"Did he take your money?" Asked the boy next to Hotaru, the one that looked like his brother. Akira laughed and shook her head.

"No, I won money because of him." She said holding up the thousand yen banknote. Kai came to stand next to her and nodded vehemently.

"Yeah! I didn't do anything shady!" He said defending himself. The boys shrugged their shoulders and rolled their similar eyes.

"In any case, I'm Hotori. If you haven't guessed, Hotaru is my younger brother." He said gesturing between himself and Hotaru. Akira gave a little bow and smiled.

"Kusanagi Akira, nice to meet you." She said and found that Kai's hand had found its way back to her shoulder before he pointed to the dreamy looking guy.

"That's Shinta, and the shorty next to him is Keisuke, and of course I've already told you about Toua." Each boy, except Toua gave a short nod, and Keisuke threw a small red die at Kai who caught it with a grin.

"If you call me short again, I swear…" Keisuke trailed off glaring at Kai.

"What are you doing hanging around here, miss Akira?" Shinta asked his voice very quiet and polite. Akira shrugged.

"I was just taking a walk and happen to see the game going on, it's very interesting." She said glancing at the still stoic looking Toua. Shinta nodded but frowned a bit.

"Isn't it sort of late for a girl to be walking by herself? There are some shady people around here you know?" He sounded genuinely concerned for her and she felt her heart constrict a bit. 'If only you knew that I am the one people watch out for.' She thought.

"Oh I think I'll be alright." She said catching a scoff from Toua, the boys also caught this and looked over at the blonde.

"Ah…what are you guys playing?" she asked ignoring him and fighting down the comment her younger self would have spat at him. She moved forwards to see the cards and the money on it; she didn't see Kai send Toua a questioning look or the smirk Tour sent back.

"Just normal poker, want to play?" Keisuke asked his eyes squinting as he smirked at her. Akira knew exactly the thought that crossed his mind and refused to play into his hand.

"I don't know how to play." She said politely, Keisuke's smirk turned to a frown but then he shrugged. Kai again casually slung an arm over her shoulders.

"It's really easy; I could teach you if you want?" He said grinning at her. Akira smiled back at him but shook her head.

"Like I said earlier, I normally am not supposed to gamble, do you always act this friendly with people you've just met?" She asked a bit of her innocent face slipping away. These guys seemed like the kind of people she had hung out with in middle school, she didn't want them to think that they could take advantage of her, but then again she also didn't want them to not like her either. Kai laughed and subtly took his arm back while the other boys looked at her oddly.

"You don't gamble?" Shinta asked as if this was very odd.

"Yeah, she said that she's not supposed to." Kai said shrugging his hands up and shaking his head.

"Well you see, I used to a while back but it got me into some trouble so I stopped." She explained. The boys again stared at her oddly.

"Trouble?" Hotaru asked curiously. Akira, not really wanting to explain simply smiled but said nothing.

"Then you do know how to play poker, and you lied?" Toua said suddenly, he asked as though he were inquiring about the weather. Akira along with everyone else looked over at him.

"No, I really have never played poker before. I used to bet on fights." She explained eyeing him wearily, as everyone suddenly looked to her. Toua blew out some smoke but nodded.

"Fights?" Kai asked a little wide eyed. Akira scratched the back of her head nervously and forced a laugh.

"Like I said; trouble." She said watching Toua from the corner of her eye. Kai gave a low whistle but smacked her back good naturedly.

"I knew I liked you! You're pretty interesting." He said happily, while Akira almost doubled over from the force of his hand which made everyone, save Toua, laugh.

Toua stood up and walked to the table and gathered the cards before he began shuffling them.

"If you don't gamble with money, then how about a simple bet?" He asked gazing at Akira, and she felt as if his eyes could place a spell of you if you stared at them for too long.

"Come on Tokuchi, she said she doesn't gamble." Kai defended with a small frown.

"What sort of bet?" Akira asked without wavering under his stare. The air suddenly got very still as the group got very silent.

"I'm guessing you work at that sushi place down the road seeing as how you share the same name, so how about if I win then you bring all of us lunch for the next week for free, and if you win I'll show you how to pitch a baseball." As he said the last part there was an audible gasp from his friends, and Akira guessed that his style of pitching was like something sacred. The ghost of the past Akira flared up at the moment the challenge was presented, and there was something about his cocky attitude that Akira couldn't ignore. Her face twisted into a familiar smirk and almost laughed when Kai's face paled.

"Alright, but since I've never played before and you are clearly a veteran I request a handicap." She said her voice cooler now and calm. Tokuchi nodded and took a seat.

"Sure, that's fair." He said sitting the cards on the table as Akira took the seat opposite of him.

"I want Kai to help me; he can explain the rules as we go." She declared and could hear Kai gulp.

"Uh, Akira I really don't think you should-"

"Just get over here." Akira snapped, before she caught herself and pulled a chair over next to her and patted it.

"Please." She said before sending him a small smile. Kai nodded and sat next to her, his body moving of its own accord a chill running down his spine. Shinta cut the deck and looked worriedly at Akira. She didn't see this though; she was staring ahead at Tokuchi her arms crossed, as Shinta began to deal the cards.

"Kai how's this work?" She asked looking towards him seriously. Kai gave a nervous laugh and motioned for her to pick up the five cards Shinta had set out for her.

"Pick them up and we'll go from there." He said his voice a bit defeated. Akira picked up her cards and showed them to Kai. She held the three of diamonds, the four of diamonds, a two of spades, a queen of hearts, and an eight of diamonds. Kai's face fell and he looked up at Tokuchi, whose facial expression had never wavered.

"Uh…" Kai began before Akira took her cards back.

"This is a bad hand right?" She asked out loud. At this Tokuchi openly laughed.

"Uh, yeah it…it uh sucks. But you can get rid of four of them if you want, just toss them face down to Shinta and he'll give you four more." He said. Akira looked over her cards again and got rid of all the cards except for the three and four of diamonds. Shinta dealt her three more cards and she picked them up and didn't show them to Kai yet. Tokuchi got rid of two of his cards, and received two from Shinta.

"Right, now what?" She asked rearranging her cards.

"Show what you've got." Tokuchi said. Akira showed her hand firstly to Kai whose face went even paler then before, but then he smiled at her.

"That's actually pretty good Akira." He said clapping her shoulder. Akira laid her cards down, the three and four of diamonds the five of clubs, six of spades and seven of clubs, a straight.

"A straight! Lucky." Hotaru said leaning closer in anticipation. Akira smiled up at Tokuchi, her smirk gone and the hard edge in her eyes softer.

"Damn." She said resignedly, each boy looked at her in wonder. Akira could see that confidence from earlier in Tokuchi's eyes and she sighed.

"I guess you win then." She said before he even moved to lay his cards down. Tokuchi finally laid his cards down and indeed he had won, with three nines and two two's.

"A flush!" Hotori said looking between the two hands. Although he had won, his smirk was gone as he stared at Akira.

"Wow, you were pretty close to winning though Akira!" Kai said, the color coming back to the poor boys face. Akira shrugged, her demeanor completely changed back to the nice young lady Kai had brought introduced.

"Beginners luck I think." She said with a sigh. Tokuchi however wasn't satisfied.

"How did you know you'd lost?" He asked, and again everyone's eyes fell to her. At this Akira felt her face get warm again and her eyes went a bit wide at being caught.

"Oh, well you see earlier when you were pitching you had this really confident look, like you'd already won. It was subtle, and you'd have to look past that condescending smirk of yours, but it was there, and just now when you got you last cards I saw it again so I knew I lost." She said feeling self-conscious and looking anywhere but at the blonde boy. Everyone was quiet, even Tokuchi who was somewhat impressed though he would never admit that. Akira looked around at everyone and then stood up quickly looking at her watch.

"I really should get going, I have homework to do, ah don't worry I'll bring you guys lunch tomorrow like I promised, around three though, I have class, so uh…see you…" with that Akira walked out of the dugout feeling a bit flustered, but then stopped when she heard the boys shout their belated goodbyes.

"See you tomorrow!" Everyone but Tokuchi shouted waving at her. She turned and waved back at them with a smile and then ran home somewhat excited about seeing the boys again.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Kai asked as everyone watched Akira's retreating form.

"She seems very nice." Shinta said quietly.

"She's lucky." Keisuke said stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets.

"She's funny." Hotaru said.

"Whatever." Hotori said.

"She's got all of you fooled." Tokuchi said lighting another cigarette and puffing on it. The boys all turned around and stared at him questioningly. Kai noted the smile his friend wore, and then looked back at Akira.

"Well fooled or not, she's brining as lunch tomorrow." He said happily.

Tokuchi Toua, who has never lost a game in his life, watched the younger girl as she disappeared into the night. He thought about everything that had happened, and then about the fact that she wasn't afraid to walk around at night alone, about her defiant and somewhat vicious smirk that had slipped out, and of course that ability to see through his mask that she had.

The next day before leaving for school, Akira told her gramps about the bet she had lost and though he gave her a stern look he had agreed that she needed to keep the promise she had made.

"But you had better not gamble again, you hear me Akira?" He said with a frown. Akira nodded but kept her eyes to the ground.

"Yes, sir." She said quietly. Ryuji nodded and grunted.

"It'll be ready when you get home." He said with a sigh.

The walk to school was quiet and uneventful, the sky a threatening gray that promised snow later.

Her classes went by quickly enough, except math, and as she was putting on her sneakers about to leave for the day she felt a bit of happy nervousness creep into her stomach. She hadn't realized just how much she was looking forward to see the boys again. Akira practically ran home, saying a quick hello to any of her neighbors that waved. She didn't even change out of her black school uniform before snatching the gray tote bag that her gramps had packed full, and dashing out the door. Teruka shook his head with a smile; it had been a good two years since either he or gramps had seen her so excited.

When Akira arrived at the field she felt a flutter of disappointment, no one was there yet. She looked at her watch and sighed in her rush she had gotten there a good twenty minutes early. She trudged over to the dugout and sat her bag on the wooden bench and found that a bat and ball had been left hidden in the corner of the dusty room. Akira grabbed them and walked towards the home base.

She stood with her back to the field and gripped the bat in her right hand before tossing the ball high enough so that she had time to grip the bat correctly. She watched the ball as it dropped and the moment it was in the perfect position she swung and gave it a good smack. The ball flew into the chain-link fence and dropped to the ground.

"Well that's not so hard." She thought out loud moving forwards to grab the ball and do it all over again.

"It's a bit harder when someone throws it to you." Akira whipped around and almost fell, her wide surprised eyes caught sight of Tokuchi leaning his arms on the shorter part of the fence and watching her with an amused grin.

"Ah…hello." She said rather rattled. Tokuchi hopped the fence easily and walked towards her and picked up the dirty baseball.

"You have pretty good reflexes though, want to try?" He asked tossing the ball up and down. Akira looked from him to the pitchers mound.

"I'm not betting." She stated firmly before turning to stand correctly in the batter box as Tokuchi walked towards the mound. He took his place.

"I never mentioned gambling, did I?" He asked watching her get settled. She looked up at him a determined frown on her face.

"Am I standing right?" she asked innocently enough. Tokuchi looked her up and down and then nodded.

"Good enough, but bend your knees a bit, and hold your right elbow up a bit." He said. Akira followed this instruction and then licked her lip in anticipation.

"Ready?" Tokuchi said, and received a brief nod from her. He wound up and then threw the ball right down the middle. Akira watched the ball go right past her and hit the fence. She looked from it to Tokuchi and her shoulders slumped.

"How am I supposed to hit that? It's too fast." She said frowning, Tokuchi's grin widened and he shook with quiet laughter. Akira picked up the ball and threw it to him gently.

"Just keep your eye on it." Tokuchi said condescendingly, Akira sent him a glare but got ready again. Tokuchi wound up and threw the ball, softer this time, and Akira smiled as she could clearly see it, and swung her bat. However as if gravity had suddenly doubled the ball dipped just under her bat and again hit the fence. Akira blinked, unsure of what had just happened. She looked from the ball to Tokuchi and then back to the ball. She picked it up and looked it over before tossing it to Tokuchi.

"How did that happen? I saw it go straight down the middle, but then it just suddenly…dropped." She said confused, as Tokuchi tossed the ball up and down.

"If you want to know that then you have to beat me at cards." He said smirking at her. Akira looked at her bat and then to him.

"Or I could just beat it out of you." She said with a flat voice, Tokuchi's grin just got wider.

"Hey! Akira-chan you're early!" Akira and Tokuchi looked over at the dugout to see Shinta and Kai who were waving at them. Akira quickly smiled at them and waved with her free hand.

"Yeah, I didn't realize I was going to be early." She said as she and Tokuchi walked over to them.

"Hello Shinta." Akira greeted, smiling at the quiet boy who smiled back.

"The others will be here soon, what all did you bring?" Kai asked excitedly rubbing his hands together. Tokuchi was quiet the whole time but at hearing the question looked at Akira too. Akira smiled and motioned for them to follow her into the dugout.

"My gramps packed a lot, I had trouble carrying it." She said as she began to unpack the large gray tote bag. She pulled out several clear tubs of sushi, rice, noodles, a shrimp dish, a beef dish, and assorted vegetables. Everything was packed neatly and looked like it was part of a food commercial.

"Oh and I hope you guys like sakura tea, we just got it in." she said handing the boys each cups. Kai and Shinta gazed doe eyed at the food as Tokuchi looked mildly approving.

"Starting without us?" Hotaru, Hotori and Keisuke rounded the corner and everyone situated so that they could sit down around their table.

"Nice to see you again Akira." Hotaru said with a smile as she handed him a cup.

"You too." She replied before offering two more cups to Keisuke and Hotori who greeted her as well. Soon enough everyone had plastic chopsticks, their share of sakura tea, and where stuffing their faces unabashedly. Akira watched in silent amusement, as the boys ate their share and then some.

"Akira this is great." Kai said looking up and grinning at her, she bit her lip to stop from laughing at him but ended up snorting.

"You've got rice here." She said pointing to her cheek.

After everyone had finished and Akira had packed up the empty containers the boys all hit the field tossing the ball to and fro, except Tokuchi who was leaning against the fence and watching. Akira stood about an arm's length away and would laugh every now and then as the boys fell or taunted one another. She looked over at him, he was smoking again.

"So, are you guys going to play One outs today?" she asked him before turning to watch the others again. She watched as he threw the almost spent butt to the ground and crushed it with his heel.

"No, it'll probably snow today." He said pointing to the gray sky. Akira looked up and silently agreed that it might snow.

"I guess that would be a problem." She commented. Silence settled between them again, and the shout of Keisuke could be heard as Kai and Hotaru held him down while laughing. Hotori and Shinta shaking their heads but grinning.

"Do you go to school Tokuchi?" Akira asked with a small amused grin. Tokuchi was quiet for a moment.

"I tested out of high school." He said causally leaning his elbows on the railing of the fence.

"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you and the others?" She asked copying his stance and looking up at him, he was probably a good four inches taller than her. His hawk like eyes looked over at her and caught her curious ones before he turned his attention back to the guys.

"Kai is nineteen, Shinta is too, Hotori is eighteen, Hotaru is seventeen and so am I." He said.

"Wow, you seem a lot older than seventeen." She said without thinking.

"Uh, what I mean is that you don't look that young, ah no wait that sounded rude." Akira stumbled on her words and frowned, her eyes zeroing in on the ground and missing the amused glance Tokuchi sent her.

"What I meant was that you seem very mature for someone your age…yeah." She said feeling a heat creep up to her cheeks as she shook her own head at her stupid remark. Tokuchi quietly laughed and Akira caught him smirking at her.

"How old are you then?" He asked simply.

"I'm sixteen, and in my second year at Tomoeda High." She said her shoulders slumping as she switched her gaze back out to the others. She felt something cold and wet land gently on her head and looked up to see a gentle flurry of snow begin to fall.

"Hey! It's snowing!" Kai shouted enthusiastically.

"We can all see that you moron." Hotori said flatly before Kai smacked him upside the head. Akira smiled at their antics but it was a bit sad. She held out a hand and watched as the snow fell onto her palm and melted.

"I guess I should get home." She muttered a bit sad to leave, and sad because of the memories that the snow brought with it. Tokuchi looked over at her and filed the unhappy look away in his mind. Akira quickly wiped off the look and replaced it with a gentle smile.

"Hey, guys! I'm going to get home, what time should I be here tomorrow?" she asked them loud enough to catch their attention. They all walked to Tokuchi and Akira to say goodbye to her.

"Well since tomorrow is Saturday how about noon?" Shinta asked her nicely with his very gentle smile. Akira quickly agreed and grabbed her bag.

"Okay I'll see you all at noon then! Be careful going home guys." With a final wave, and the guys thanking her for lunch again she began to walk home.

Kai sidled up next to Tokuchi and nudged him with an elbow.

"What were you two talking about over here all by yourselves?" He asked slyly catching all the boys' attention. Tokuchi's hand stealthily smacked Kai over the head earning a yelp from the older boy.

"She wanted to know our ages." He said pulling out another cigarette. Kai frowned and rubbed his sore head.

"That's not very fun." He said lamely watching the girl's retreating form. Shinta shook his head.

"She's not afraid of us." He said reflectively. Hotaru, who stood next to the big guy nodded.

"Yeah, maybe she's really naive." He said scratching his head in contemplation.

"Or maybe she's just dumb." Keisuke said crudely, it was Hotori who smacked him this time.

"Or maybe you idiot she's just not a judgmental person." He said shaking his head at the rude comment Keisuke had made. Kai looked to Tokuchi and then to the others.

"Maybe she knows people or are a bit more freighting then us." He said, his face which was usually smiling was serious. He was showing his smart side as Tokuchi called it, and in fact he was closer to the truth then any of the guys knew.

Akira stood just outside her home, eyes skyward. It was still snowing, and windless. It was a very gentle onslaught of the white fluff but Akira could bring herself to smile like the children across the street. She heard the distinct sliding of the back door to her left and looked over to see gramps in his work clothes watching her.

"How were your friends?" He asked without a smile, he was trying to get her mind off the snow, she knew. Akira let a small grateful smile drift onto her face as she walked towards the door.

"They liked the food, and told me to tell you thanks." She said, her voice sounding small. Gramps' big calloused hand moved to rest on her shoulder.

"Come inside." Was all he said, as he moved to let her in he didn't shower her with useless words of comfort or false happiness. She knew he was sad too, and like she did with him he found comfort in her presence. They both walked upstairs and turned on the tv to watch a few shows before one of them would take a bath, and then the other. They would have a quiet dinner, and then they would say goodnight and slip into their rooms Gramps to do some reading before bed, and Akira to study before they would both call it a day and turn out their lights.

Tokuchi was watching a baseball game on the tv from his stool, his elbows propped up against the bar and his hands supporting his head. The noises of the other people around him fuzzy as he watched the pitcher on the television. The tall and rather robust black woman behind the bar studied the boy silently but said nothing to him. She knew how old he was and all that nonsense, but the boy and his abilities brought in money so she didn't mind. But for knowing him as long as she had, she knew that something was on his young mind.

"Toua, did you lose or something?" she asked casually as she dried a highball glass. Tokuchi's eye switched from the tv to Big Mamma.

"No, I didn't lose." He said matter of factly. At this Big Mamma smirked a knowing smirk.

"It's a girl then." She concluded out loud before turning to take care of a customer who was waving to her. Tokuchi watched her walk away and smirked at her back, in a way she had been right.

The next day

Akira held her umbrella in one hand and over her head, and the big gray tote bag was balanced on her opposite shoulder as she walked towards the field. She was in rather foul mood and had been since the morning. She hadn't got much sleep, her mind just wouldn't shut off last night and she had so many thoughts rushing around in her head while she tried forgetting them all and counting sheep. In the end though she had gotten only an hour or two before she gave up and went to make breakfast and got dressed for the day. She had on black thermal stockings a dark brown skirt that was billowy and allowed her quite a bit of movement, a dark gray sweater, her winter jacket and ankle high thick boots.

Over the night the snow had blanketed the city and was still gently falling, thus she had her umbrella. Gramps had made the lunch she was carrying, and with a yawn she trudged down the road. Once she got to the field she went to the dugout to wait for her new found friends. She smiled instantly feeling better when she heard a crunching in the snow. She stood up to greet them with a smile, but found that the three boys who turned the corner into the dugout were not any she knew and her smile melted into a frown.

The three boys were all about her age, one had his hair dyed an orange color and had cruel looking eyes, another had his hair buzzed and a scar from a busted lip, and the last one had his black hair slicked back and it was him who smiled at her callously.

"Well now I didn't expect a pretty girl like you to be here of all places." He said walking towards her with his hands in his pockets. He got close enough to her so that she could feel the heat his body was radiating. The other two snickered behind him and closed in as well. Akira sighed, annoyed by the three morons.

"Get lost dip shits I'm in no mood." She said dismissively watching their moves casually. For a moment the three seemed stunned and simply stared at her like she was some kind of wild creature. However at that moment the dark haired boy seemed to regain his senses. He reached out and grabbed a handful of her jacket and pulled her up till her nose was nearly touching his and she stood on her tip toes.

"Your quiet the mouthy little bitch aren't you?" He asked frowning at her. Akira's hand caught his offending one and brought her foot up till it was level with his stomach. She dug her nails into the soft spot between his thumb and wrist and ruthlessly twisted till she heard a snap. The boy howled in pain and with a swift thrust of her foot Akira kicked him backwards to the feet of his two friends.

"Bitch is not a nice word." She said straightening her jacket out. She looked up at his two friends, and they backed away carefully as she closed the distance between them.

"You three are just plain unlucky, not to mention stupid, I'm having a really bad day." She said as the three of them wound up on the field a few feet away from the dugout. The two boys, and Akira, didn't notice the two boys who had just stopped behind home plate. Both Kai and Tokuchi stood quietly watching the happenings going on.

Akira clenched her fist and charged the orange haired boy, and in his surprise caught him with her fist in his left eye, before she grabbed his hand and twisted it till his joint locked and his body angled away from her exposing his ribcage. Akira quickly took advantage of this and kicked sideways as hard as she could while releasing his arm. She ducked out of the way of the last boy's fist; he had tried to catch her from behind, but had been to slow.

While ducked under his arm Akira brought the heel of her hand up and into his nose, which instantly spurted out blood that fell onto her cheek. He yelped in pain and fell to his knees with his hands cradling his broken nose. Akira mercilessly brought her knee forwards and knocked his hands into his now sensitive nose and he fell backwards into the snow groaning.

Akira stepped on his exposed stomach and leaned forwards.

"If you value your life, get lost and take your damn friends with you." She seethed. The boy hopped up quickly and with wide eyes ran towards his recovering orange haired friend and pulled him up before they disappeared into the dugout and then fled with their third member. Akira sighed and closed her eyes not feeling any better, but slightly worse.

"Akira?" She swiveled around quickly with wide eyes to see Kai, and a curious looking Tokuchi. She stared at them with a gaping mouth trying to come up with some excuse, but coming up with nothing. She could have lied but it had always been a rule to never lie even before high school.

"I…I just, they…I brought lunch?" she managed. Kai still stared at her, too shocked to move. Tokuchi however wasn't as shell shocked and moved towards her till he was about and arm's length away. Akira looked up pleadingly at him and flinched when he brought his hand up and wiped the red stain off her cheek. Her eyes flew open and watched him carefully.

"That was a good punch." He said before turning around and walking back to the dugout. Akira quickly followed him and along the way grabbed hold of Kai's jacket and pulled him along. The older boy shook himself and as soon as Akira let him go he grabbed her gingerly but the forearms and began looking her over.

"They didn't hurt you did they?" He asked inspecting her face. Akira looked between him and Tokuchi who was watching the scene with a stoic face, his eyes fell to her hands. The hand she had used to punch with was red and as he caught sight of it she moved it behind her back to hide it.

"I'm alright; they got the worst of it." She said guiltily. Kai let her go and let out a low whistle before taking a seat next to Toua. Akira starred at the ground the familiar ache of her knuckles beginning to burn.

"Did you know those guys?" Kai asked exasperatedly. Akira shook her head no.

"I was waiting here for you guys when they showed up." She said plopping down on the bench a good five feet away from the boys. Kai looked at Toua who shrugged his shoulders. Akira had the sudden urge to go home and she sighed.

"I'm sorry." She said leaning her head forwards till it rested on her knees, her hands hanging limply beside her.

"If they come back and cause any trouble it'll be my entire fault. I guess you could just tell them that I go to Tomoeda and if they want another round that I'll be there." She said miserably before leaning back up and pushing off the bench. She sent Kai and Tokuchi a sorry smile and a wave.

"I brought your lunch. Can you not tell the others about this?" She said before walking toward the exit and then out into the snowy day. Both boys sat silently listening to the crunch of the snow beneath her boots.

Kai flopped backwards his eyes blinking as if someone had shone a bright light into them.

"Well, what do you think Toua?" He asked looking over at Tokuchi, but when he looked he found only a gray tote bag and a black umbrella leaned up against the wall. He let out a small sigh, but smiled.

"Jerk." He mumbled.

Akira could hear the crunch of snow behind her and stopped to see who it was, and was surprised to see Tokuchi. They simply stared at each other before Tokuchi gestured with his pointer finger for her to come to him. She hesitated for a second before obeying and walking toward him her eyes unsure and a frown on her face. She stopped an arm's length away and looked up at him, his expression was still stoic but he wore a small amused smile.

"What?" she asked impatiently. Tokuchi's hand caught hers and without a word he started walking towards the train station. Confused Akira let him pull her along, taking a moment to stare at his hand that had enclosed hers. It was warm and even though his hand was pale and slender it was larger than hers and strong.

"To…Tokuchi, where are we going? Hey are you listening?" She asked rattled. They made a turn and ended up walking for another ten minutes till Tokuchi stopped in front of a familiar bar and opened the door.

Inside it was practically dead, with only an older man at the bar and a woman cleaning the wooden surface of it. Tokuchi didn't spare them a glance and instead walked towards the back of the building which was darker and secluded. He stopped at a table in the corner and nodded with his head.

"Go ahead take a seat." He said after she looked at him doubtfully. He himself sat down on the cushioned booth seat and slid to the middle, and slowly Akira followed suit opposite of him.

"…Where the hell are we?" Akira asked unaware of the curse that slipped out. Tokuchi grinned at her slip.

"So this is what you've been hiding. I have to admit it's not what I expected." He said leaning to observe her. Akira sighed and propped her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand.

"Look if they come back just tell them-"

"Quit with the self-sacrificing crap. You really think that we're the types to sell you out?" He said leaning a bit closer copying her position and resting his chin on his hand. Akira stared at him wide eyed for a moment before glaring at him.

"You don't even know me." She said lowly her voice condemning. Tokuchi shrugged his shoulders just as Big Mamma brought over a glass of hot tea for the both of them. She left without a word but got a good look at Akira.

"Even so." He said leaning back with his calm expression. Akira didn't know what to say. The reason most people avoided her was either because they became targets by association, or because they were scared of her. She hated it when good people got hurt just because they spoke to her.

"It's selfish of me to even act like your friend." She said clutching her warm tea cup.

"You're pretty hard on yourself." He pointed out. Akira's eye caught his again and she almost pleaded with him to understand. She sighed, her mind made up.

"Tokuchi, awhile back I was kind of…okay well not kind of, I was the leader of a street gang.I was pretty different back then." She looked up at him, but his eyes and face were the same so she pressed on.

"You see, at the end of middle school I sort of grew out of the whole delinquent mindset and stepped down from the head position. A lot of people didn't like that, and a lot of people don't like me. Kids at school learned to avoid me, either because they're afraid of me or because the moment someone from an old rival gang sees them being friendly with me, they beat them up. So it's not exactly healthy to be my friend." She said watching his face for any reaction. Tokuchi shifted his hand in his pocket and pulled out his lighter and a cigarette and lit it before offering her one from the pack.

"No thanks." She said quietly. There was a stagnant moment of silence as Tokuchi took a short drag of smoke and then released it.

"That explains your reflexes, and your gambling rule." He said before laying his arms across the booth's chair casually.

"You think that Kai and the others will really care about that stuff? Their just happy you're not afraid of them. Most people see them as no good drop outs, they aren't part of a gang or anything like that but they get in fights and can hold their own. They aren't as innocent as you make them out to be." He said watching her shoulders slump together and her head droop a bit.

"I know that, I just don't want to cause good people trouble." She said miserably. Her head snapped up as Tokuchi let out a rather loud laugh. This even caught the attention of the bar tender, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Good people huh? Your world must be really twisted if you think we're good people." He said shaking his head.

"I'm still curious though why the snow made you so miserable." He said lower now so that only she could hear him. Akira's face fell again, and she glanced towards the bartender and then back to Tokuchi when she was sure the woman wasn't paying attention.

"My parents died while it was snowing two years ago." She said softly. Tokuchi nodded and let another puff of smoke out above Akira's head.

"Well we made a deal, and you've only brought lunch twice so you'll have to bring it at least five more days. Too bad for you." He said smirking at her surprised face.

"Even if I cause you guys nothing but trouble?" She asked shyly.

"You clearly don't know us, or me for that matter very well." He said amused. Akira sighed but when she looked up at him again she smiled, relived and happy.

"How's your hand?" He asked holding his own out across the table. She gingerly sat her sore hand in his and he brought it closer to inspect it. It was red, but Akira knew by tomorrow it would be on the mend and only slightly purple. But as Tokuchi examined it gently Akira felt a foreign feeling of nervousness and doubt creep up inside. A part of her liked Tokuchi holding her hand, and another part of her told her to snatch it back and be very wary of him. Yet at the moment she didn't do anything she just stared at him gratefully.

"Thank you, Tokuchi Toua." She said softly.

* * *

FYI: For every one hundred yen that equals about a dollar, so two thousand yen is about twenty bucks.

Also, this chapter is rather long for me, but I wanted to get Tokuchi's and Akira's past out of the way quickly, so there will only be one more rather long chapter of their younger years before I magically skip through time and grow them up a bit.

I hope Toua is in character, I wanted him to be a bit more innocent and smile more as a kid as well. Review are awesome, however if you feel the need to be a (really foul word insert here) then don't waste your time reviewing, I really could care less.


	2. As Time Changes With or Without You

An Opaque Heart

Ch. 2 As Time Changes With or Without You

* * *

Senior year of High school was even more of a pain then any of the other two combine. Akira sighed somehow she had gotten stuck cleaning the classroom, alone. Outside it was a nice spring day, no clouds in sight, a pleasant breeze cooling the air, and the sun warming the chill of the wind. Akira had un-tucked the white short sleeved dress shirt of her uniform and had already loosened the blue zip up tie. She stretched her back for a second and then reached up to slip her black headband out of her hair and stuck it in her mouth to hold while she smoothed her shoulder length black hair back and skillfully pulled an elastic hair band from her wrist and centering the caught hair tied it up before slipping the headband back on.

She looked around the clean classroom and decided it was clean enough and it was about time she got home. She grabbed her bag from her desk and went to close the open windows. Her slim hand stopped as she caught a glimpse of two rather sketchy looking boys standing just outside the gate, one smiling slyly at the girls that passed by and the other carelessly leaning back against the gate with his hands in his pockets and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His stark blonde hair giving him away before anything else. Akira stared fondly at the two and smiled before she shut and locked the window.

She slipped on her sneakers and walked hurriedly to meet the two at the gates.

"You're late." Tokuchi said as he noticed her hurrying to them. Kai turned at hearing Tokuchi and grinned.

"Hey, Akira!" He said happy as usual. In the year that Akira had known them she had become very attached to the two, one more so than the other.

"I'm sorry about that, if I had known you two were going to pick me up I would have ditched cleaning duty." She said walking passed the two, who immediately followed, Kai on one side Tokuchi on the other his hands still in his pockets. Kai slung his arm over her shoulders; he had to bend down to do so, and snickered.

"You had cleaning duty? Poor little Akira." He said shaking his head dramatically. Akira smiled at him a bit annoyed and pinched the tender flesh under his offending arm. He gave a squeak and quickly apologized.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry, sorry! Dammit girl I said I was sorry!" He shouted as Akira finally released him with a smirk and a nod. Tokuchi too had a devilish smirk on his face.

"You two are evil." Kai said gingerly rubbing his arm frowning at the two of them.

"Is today special? What's with the escort?" Akira asked looking forwards again, trying not to pay attention to how close Tokuchi was.

"Well actually we-" Kai began to say with an innocent grin on his face.

"We're eating at your place." Toua said before Kai could come up with a pitiful lie that Akira would undoubtedly see through. Akira looked to him somewhat surprised.

"Is that so?" she asked cynically. Tokuchi looked over at her and held out a closed fist towards her. Akira stopped at the same moment he did and stuck out a closed fist as well. Kai gave a quick laugh but stopped as well and placed one of his hands over each of theirs.

"No cheating you two." He said before counting to three slowly and then quickly moving his hands.

"Rock. Paper. Scissors." Akira said along with the rhythm of the two bobbing fist. Tokuchi's hand lowered in scissors, while Akira's lowered in paper. Toua's stoic face grinned in triumph, all the while balancing his cigarette. Akira glared at the offending hand.

"You suck the luck out of the air Toua." She said flatly before the trio continued on down the road to the Kusanagi restaurant.

"Your one to talk." Kai said graciously patting her shoulder. The three turned on her street and as Kai and Akira chatted about their day they almost missed the boy leaning on a light pole in front of them. Toua noticed him first.

"Someone you know?" He asked halting Akira and Kai. She looked at the boy and found that he was indeed familiar but she couldn't remember his name.

"Not really." She muttered as the boy spotted them and with a shy smile and a light shade of pink on his face walked towards them till he stood in front of Akira rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Uh, hey senpai." He said timidly, ignoring the strange look Kai sent him and the indifferent look Tokuchi was wearing. Akira felt a little embarrassed that she couldn't think of the boy's name. He had nice stylish dark hair and a pretty boy's face and stood at her height.

"Hey there." She said awkwardly. It was quiet for a moment before Akira cleared her throat, the boy's staring making her uncomfortable. He seemed to snap out of his daze and pulled an envelope from his school bag, and held it out for her to take.

"For you." He said as she took it and looked from to boy to the letter.

"Uh, what's this?" she asked stupidly. Kai looked at Tokuchi and shook his head at her air head question, while Tokuchi raised a brow. The pretty boy laughed a little as his face went a bit more red.

"Senpai it's a confession letter, you know?" He said before turning tail and calmly walking away. Akira stood stone still staring at the spot he had been in. Kai snorted a bit before snatching the letter from her.

"Kai!" she shouted jumping up and down trying to take the letter back from her tall friend who held it just out of reach.

"Oh! A confession letter! I wonder what it says, don't you Toua?" Kai teased as Tokuchi snuffed out his cigarette.

"I'm not interested." He said decidedly. Akira balled a fist and jabbed Kai in the gut, hard enough to knock the breath out of him but not to hurt him. She quickly tore the letter open and began reading while Kai coughed and tried to catch his breath, while Tokuchi sniggered at the scene. However a tick of annoyance was irking the young Toua as Akira diligently read the two pages. She suddenly stood ram rod straight, her face beat red. Toua could almost see steam coming out of her ears.

"That bad, huh?" He asked walking forwards and making to take the letter. Akira however made a silent promise to never let anyone, especially Toua, see the letter. She jerked away from him and stuffed it into her bag. It was rather surprising to the blond boy; she almost never would hide anything from him or Kai.

"It's…it's really embarrassing." She said her face still hot. Toua nodded but said nothing while Kai silently watched the two. For the year that Kai had observed the interaction between Toua and Akira he knew that Akira was crushing big time of the gambling prodigy and although probably not as passionate about his feelings it was easy for Kai to see the affection Toua had for her, he cared for her quite a bit. Kai himself cared for the younger girl, but in more of an over affectionate brother way. 'Hmm, this could be a push in the right direction.' Kai thought as Toua began walking again in the direction of the restaurant.

"Hey, kid we should get going." Kai said gently, his voice shook Akira from her thoughts as she nodded and the two caught up to Toua.

Akira sighed for the umpteenth time that day, she untied the apron she wore when working in the restaurant and hung it up in the kitchen. Teruka, who was standing over the stove, looked over at the distracted girl with a slightly bemused look.

"Something up kid?" he asked turning a knob on the stove to lower the heat. Akira looked over at the man, he was sort of gangly, with sandy blond hair that went past his ears but was held back by a black bandana. His face always had a look of boredom on it, even when he laughed. Akira stared at him for a moment, her thoughts running away again.

That morning she had gotten her acceptance letter to Tokyo University, her first choice for school. At first she had been so stunned that she had actually made it into the prestigious school that she had skipped breakfast. Gramps had noticed, she knew, but said nothing.

"It's just something about school." She said quietly, walking towards the back door. Teruka nodded in understanding.

"Good luck, kid." He said as she opened the door and a pleasant breeze wafted into the hot kitchen. Akira stood in the doorway one hand on the doorknob, the other clenching in a fist.

"Yeah." She said sadly, before escaping out the door and softly closing it. Once outside she took a deep breath and a small regretful smile spread on her face. The air was sweet and the perfect temperature today, the sky was dotted with puffy white clouds and the sounds of the neighborhood children drifted to her ears. At least they were enjoying their Sunday. She walked to the backyard's gate that stood at about waist high, and walked out of it to the street.

Today she was wearing a comfortable pair of jeans, a gray spaghetti tank top which she wore under a baggy white t-shirt that at the moment hung off her left shoulder, and her tennis shoes. Her hair was loose and swaying every now and then with the wind. She didn't really know where she was going, she let her feet guide her as thoughts of school, her friends, gramps, the island, and how everything was about to change. She wasn't sure she liked it.

'University in Tokyo, means leaving everyone behind; Kai, Shinta, Hotaru, Hotori, Keisuke and…Toua. It means leaving gramps and the restaurant, being alone. It means four years of school, and then three years of law school. That's seven damn years…' She was thinking so deeply that when someone would wave at her or say hello she didn't even notice. Her eyes were trained on the pavement but weren't really seeing it. She wanted to go to school, get a degree in law, something her mother had done and get a good job. She wanted to take care of Gramps for once, but she didn't want to leave her friends and her comfortable life.

She would miss the cool sweet air of the island, the white sandy beaches; she would the neighbors who she knew, and the friendly people of the town. It was altogether depressing to think about, and to be honest scary. She felt her nerves in her stomach, constant and reminding her that she had to make a decision. The one thing she hated most was that she would have to tell the guys, she would have to tell Toua.

Toua. Another twist knotted itself in her stomach; she hadn't even been able to find the courage to tell him how she felt, and would she be able to before she left? Was it better to not say anything at all? She stopped on the sidewalk of the bridge, and looked down at the water below.

Tokuchi and Kai entered the front door of the Kusanagi restaurant and a small bell's ding notified the employees of their arrival. The staff was already quiet used to the two boys, and so simply smiled at the two as they made their way to the sushi bar were Ryuji was peeling a daikon. They took their normal seats at the end of the bar to Ryuji's right.

Tokuchi's eyes scanned the room, but found no sight of the quirky raven haired girl that they had come to see.

"Hey there gramps!" Kai said in his usual cheerful manner. Ryuji, who didn't even look up from his task gave a grunt.

"Come to freeload again?" he said, his voice stoic but a small smile forming on his face. Kai laughed but shook his head.

"Not today, were looking for Akira." He said leaning his elbows on the black marble of the bar. Now finished with the radish, Ryuji sighed and sat his knife down and wiped his hands on his apron before finally turning to look at the boys.

"She's not here, left a while ago, kids got something on her mind. She didn't even eat breakfast this morning." He said crossing his big arms, her face suddenly very serious. Kai's eyes widened in confusion, and Tokuchi's attention finally turned to the ex-mafia chef, a frown evident on his face.

"She didn't eat?" Kai asked his worry peeking through. When Akira declined food, or didn't eat it meant something was definitely wrong. The girl loved food.

"She said something about a letter." Ryuji said with a sigh before shrugging his shoulders and turning back to his work. Kai mentally rolled his eyes.

"You think it's about that kid yesterday?" He said slyly looking over at Tokuchi, who's frown was still in place. Kai snickered at the expression on his friends face before he stood from his seat.

"Well, let's go find her." He said as Tokuchi stood as well.

"See you around Gramps." Kai said, while Tokuchi gave a small wave to the man. As Ryuji watched the boys leave he sighed and shook his head.

Akira sat on the grass next to the lazy river, tossing one small stone after the other into it.

"What am I going to do?" she asked out loud following up with a sigh.

"About what?" at the sudden voice of another person Akira jumped and whipped around to see the last two people she wanted to see. Tokuchi's voice startled her more than she cared to admit, and suddenly she felt ten times more nervous than she had that morning.

"Oh, uh it's nothing." She lied quickly, standing up and dusting off nonexistent dirt from her jeans. Kai's mouth quirked into a disbelieving smirk but he said nothing while Tokuchi just shrugged and didn't mention that she was blatantly lying.

"what are you doing out here?" Tokuchi asked glancing to the rock in her hand. Akira dropped it and gave a weak smile.

"Just hanging out, what are you guys doing?" she asked glancing between them tensely. Kai's eyebrow quirked and he smiled at her like she was a kid who had been caught.

"Were going to watch a game, want to come?" Kai asked motioning in the direction of the baseball field with his thumb, and shoving his other hand into his pocket. Akira sure didn't feel like going back home nodded.

"Yeah, sure." She said walking towards them. Kai gave a wicked smirk.

"Maybe your boyfriend will show up." He said casually. At this Akira tense even more, and next to her Kai could have sworn he saw Toua grimace. He laughed at the abashed look on her face before throwing his arm around her shoulders.

"Answered the kid yet?" he asked loving the embarrassment that seeped from her. She looked up at him with a bright blush and a frown, she had almost forgotten about the letter the boy, Yamagi Takamori, had given her.

"I don't see how that's any of your business Kai." She spat crossing her arms across her chest. Kai gave her a cheek grin before laughing out loud.

"But we have to make sure that he's worthy of you princess!" He teased tossing his hands into the air. Akira gave an exasperated sigh and was about to go on about his stupidity before Tokuchi interrupted their little teasing match.

"Knock it off." He said, stuffing his hands into his pockets to pull out a lighter and a cigarette. He indignantly lit the white stick and frowned at the road ahead, since the three had started the walk to the field. Akira stared at Tokuchi with an expression akin to disbelief. She had never seen his so irate, while Kai on the other hand was trying very hard not to point and laugh.

Akira sat between Tokuchi and Kai, the high school seniors were playing against the middle school in a friendly scrimmage. Tokuchi was obviously bored, but stayed quiet, while Kai would criticize the mistakes that the older team made. Akira was also not paying attention, she kept glancing from Tokuchi to Kai, and then back to her lap.

"Senpai." Akira's head snapped up and three rows down on the metal benches, was Takamori smiling pleasantly up at her. For a second she wanted to smack Kai for jinxing her. She gave the younger boy forced polite smile and a wave. Takamori took this as a good sign apparently and got up from his seat to walk up and sit in front of her, his back to the game.

Kai had stopped watching the game, and Tokuchi watched the boy with a slight frown. Takamori smiled widely showing two rows of perfect white tenth, that Akira swore sparkled in the sunlight. Kai who was usally the center of attention felt a twitch in his left eye as the boy ignored both he and Tokuchi.

"How are you today? Did you read my letter?" He asked Akira, his demeanor was pleasant enough if a bit proud. Akira could feel Kai's eyes on her and Tokuchi's as well, did they expect and answer too?

"Ah, well I-" Akira began but was cut off.

"Get lost kid." Tokuchi said stoically flicking some ash from his halfway finished cigarette. He was so casually calm, and his eyes glared at the boy like he was pray. Takamori finally took his eyes off Akira to stare at Tokuchi as if the older boy had magically appeared. Kai brought a hand up to his mouth to hide a growing snide smile, and gave a fake cough. Akira's deep blue eyes widened at the scene and were locked on the side of Tokuchi's face. Takamori's usually pleasant eyes narrowed as he looked Tokuchi up and down. Akira felt the tension between the two as they glared at one another.

"And who are you? Her brother?" Takamori asked, his tone sarcastic, he had done a one-eighty from being charming to a nasty jerk. Akira could feel a tiny spark of anger towards the boy, did she really look like Toua's sister? Tokuchi let out a startling chuckle, while balancing the white stick in his mouth perfectly. He scooted towards Akira until their shoulders touched, and leaned forwards a bit till he was right in Takamori's face.

"Not quiet." He said quietly, his devious smirk unnerving the young boy. Takamori's eyes switched from Tokuchi to Akira, who at the moment was trying all at once to hide her blush, and figure out what it was that Tokuchi thought he was doing. Her wide eyes never left the blonde boy, and Takamori frowned.

"Senpai, who is this delinquent?" He asked trying to ignore the heat in Tokuchi's glare. Akira finally snapped her astonished eyes from Tokuchi to Takamori. From the sidelines, Kai was holding his hand to his mouth, glee spewing from his eyes as he watched the happenings. Tokuchi's amber eyes moved from Takamori to their shoulders and then to Akira's face.

"He's…he's a…a good friend of mine." She said stumbling for words through the haze in her mind. Tokuchi's smirk grew and again he looked to the boy. Takamori was quiet for a second before his own self-assured smile was back.

"I see, so he's your friend? That's good to hear I was worried for a moment. You're pretty lucky Senpai to have a friend who is willing to protect you, but you don't need to worry blondie I'll take good care of senpai." He said standing up and sending a haughty glare towards Tokuchi. Akira's face went from shocked to angry.

"I still haven't given you an answer Yamagi." She said frowning at the boy. Takamori sent her another charming smile.

"No need to rush Senpai." And with that he turned around and went back to his seat. From her left Akira could hear Kai shaking with laughter and she sent her fist into his shoulder rather roughly. She leaned back into her seat and wished that the metal would swallow her up at that moment. She glanced over at a now silent Tokuchi who had also leaned back, though he had yet to move over, their shoulders still pressed together. He suddenly looked over at her and their eyes caught. Akira felt a shock run through her and her face lit up a nice red shade before she broke the connection and stared at the baseball game.

"Thanks." She muttered. She felt Tokuchi shrug, and except for the occasional sigh or giggled from Kai the three sat in silence till the game ended.

Tokuchi sat next to Kai who was bouncing in his seat. The two were watching the game on the tv behind Big Mamma's spotless bar. Kai smiled widely as a favorite player of his hit a homerun.

"Yes!" He said with a fist pump into the air. Tokuchi shook his head amusedly at his oldest friend. Kai sat back down and ordered another round for them from the sly black woman behind the counter. Kai's stool swiveled till his body was turned towards Tokuchi. Kai's good-looking face was bright with a smug smile as he stared at Tokuchi.

"What?" questioned the younger of the two, Kai's mouth twitched and his smile grew till Tokuchi could see the white gleam of teeth. A silent Kai always meant trouble, so Tokuchi sighed quietly and turned till he too was facing Kai.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Tokuchi asked a little annoyed.

"Oh you know, I was just thinking about the other day. You got a little protective, don't you think?" He asked and already Tokuchi knew exactly where this conversation was going, they had had it one too many times and at the moment Tokuchi didn't want to talk about it. So he sighed and shrugged.

"You've done similar before." He said after a moment. Kai laughed at him, rather condescendingly.

"Oh, yeah but not like that, does that kid threaten you?" Kai asked eyeing his friend. At his question Tokuchi turned his glare that would normally scare any sane man into Kai who wasn't fazed in the least.

"Threatened? Your jokes suck." He replied snuffing out his spent cigarette. Kai's smirk never wavered.

"What if Akira says yes? Ever think about that?" Kai turned back around as Big Mamma slid a short glass with amber liquid in it towards him, and he nodded his thanks.

"No, I don't." Tokuchi said casually, as if talking about the weather. Kai shook his head frustrated. He had tried many a time, on both of his friends, to push them into realizing their feelings. Akira was easier to persuade, and the day that she had admitted her feelings to Kai had been a triumphant day for the older boy. However getting her to admit it to Tokuchi was another matter altogether, he would never describe her as cowardly, except in this area.

Tokuchi would never admit an attachment to anyone. It was hard enough to get him to acknowledge friendship with people. To Kai though, it was obvious. Akira knew her own feelings; Kai knew that, but Tokuchi? He really wondered sometimes if the boy even knew that what he felt for the younger girl was in fact romantic affection.

"Do you even know what caring for someone means?" He asked heatedly, well as heatedly as Kai could get, he was never an angry person. Tokuchi didn't even look up from the counter; he just swished his drink in its glass.

"It means being vulnerable." He replied quietly as if admitting this to Kai was one of the seven sins. Kai's perpetual smile fell, the mood suddenly changed as he turned away from Tokuchi to stare at his own drink.

"You think she doesn't know that?" He almost whispered. Kai and Tokuchi almost never disagreed, or argued but right now the alcohol in Kai's system spurred him on.

"You can't just sit back and watch forever Toua, someday some guy is going to see what you and I see." He snapped his fingers and took a large gulp of his drink.

"And just like that she'll be gone." He said finally setting the now empty glass on the counter. Tokuchi finally looked over at Kai with an annoyed glance.

"You think I don't know that already? You know who I am right?" He asked irately. Kai sneered at him.

"Then what the hell?" He asked deadly serious and in a low voice that only Tokuchi could hear.

"You and I both know that she's a grade better than us. She shouldn't be tied down here." He said in an equally deadly voice. At this Kai nearly doubled over in frustration, he wanted to rip that messy blonde hair out of Toua's head and then smack him till at least one tooth fell out of his smug face.

"Are you serious? You can't be serious, of all the stupid things I've heard in my life I never thought that the dumbest of all of them all would come from you. You may be a genius in everything else but if that is what you really think Tokuchi then you're just senseless." Kai stood up and shook his head with a frown.

"It doesn't suit you, that self-sacrificing shit. It really bugs the piss out of me." With that Kai laid some money down to pay for his drinks and then stalked out of the bar without sparing a glance at Tokuchi.

Tokuchi starred at his drink, the hand he had around the glass had tightened substantially after Kai's tirade. Self-sacrificing, the very thought irked him, Tokuchi was selfish and he knew that and it didn't bother him. The moment he had laid eyes on Akira that day on the field, he knew she was better than him and his friends. The fact that she had been a big time yankee only made her seem more human to him, but she had family, and a future that wasn't restricted to the borderline illegal. He still wondered why she hung around with them. She had fun with them he knew, and she was comfortable with Kai and the boys.

Tokuchi wasn't baffled by this though he knew she preferred his sort of company compared to those uppity kids at her school. He even knew why she wanted to go to school and better herself. He could tell what kind of mood she was in, what she was thinking, like he could with most people, but there were moments, small miniscule seconds every now and then that she would surprise him. She could say things sometimes that changed the way people looked at the world, one moment she could be yelling at the guys for getting into a fight and then she herself would punch each of them.

But she was bound to leave this tiny island, bound for something better. He didn't like the thought. He didn't like it at all, but he wasn't about to stop her. It tugged a part of him, a part that was normally silent. It was uncomfortable and frustrating. But Tokuchi would ignore that feeling, and send her off with his normal acceptance. She would see that there where better people out there, and she would forget their group. He was prepared for it.

He gave a sigh and finished his drink and a sudden thought came to him.

If she didn't leave.

The thought was a wisp of a hope, a word that Tokuchi never liked much. He was all about absolutes. He willed that thought away, and turned to leave. Kai thought he cared huh? Well he was man enough to admit that the cheerful moron was right. The kindest thing that Tokuchi Toua could do for Kusanagi Akira was let her go.

'Let her go?' He thought stuffing his hands into his pockets.

'I never had her to begin with.' It was a thought that he again washed away.

'The best thing to do is leave her alone.' He thought, before smirking to himself.

'Yeah, right like I'm that nice.'

Akira starred at her computer's screen and scrolled down. The University's site was full of information she needed to know. She had already spoken to Gramps about the school, told him about her acceptance, and that she did plan to go. He had patted her shoulder and smiled proudly.

"Good job." He'd said so sincerely that it had made her cry. She had enough money left to her from her parents to pay for a small apartment, and the school had payment plans that were manageable. She even found a few job listings that she was going to inquire about.

She had decided not to go to the open campus that the university held for all new students.

She still hadn't told the guys and each day that went by she found it harder and harder to utter those words. Kai and Tokuchi had apparently had a small fight earlier that month she could tell from the withering glances they would share. She had asked Kai about it, but he had only smiled and told her they would work it out. Tokuchi had refused to say anything at all.

She sighed and leaned back in her desk chair and looked at her alarm clock, another hour and she was going to Keisuke's to celebrate his birthday. It turned out that he too had gotten into a school, a technical school, but still a school, so this was also a party to congratulate him. Hotori and Hotaru would probably work in their family's grocery store and one of them would take over it, they were content to live on the island. Shinta too was glad to stay, he would still be working at the car garage fixing cars and taking care of his sickly mom. Kai had no plans, he was never one for them, the moment he found something he wanted to do he would, and no doubt he would be good at it. Toua. She didn't know what he planned to do about the future, he never spoke about it and when she asked him he would shrug and change the subject.

"Akira." Gramps' voice startled her form her thoughts and Akira turned around to see him standing in her doorway with a white box in his hands. It was about twelve by seven and had a pink ribbon expertly wrapped around it. She looked up at him smiling face in question.

"I got this for you when you first said you wanted to go to law school." He said walking all the way into her room and handing the box to her.

"Gramps, you know you didn't have to get me anything." She said softly happily gazing at the box and gently untying the bow. Inside was a navy blue halter dress, she ran her fingers over the chiffon material and her version went blurry. She looked up to see that gramps had taken a seat on the edge of her bed and was watching happily. Akira blinked back her gracious tear and sat the box on her desk before bounding towards Ryuji and hugging him in a vice like grip.

"Thanks gramps." She said quietly. He hugged her back just as tightly, and when he let go she sat next to him.

"I thought you could wear it the day you leave." He said thoughtfully patting her knee kindly. Akira nodded her agreement but couldn't speak; she had a lump the size of Hokkaido in her throat.

"Have you told that Tokuchi kid yet?" He suddenly asked. His voice was so gentle, like he thought that the mere mention of the boy's name would shatter her flimsy resolve to go.

"Not yet." She said finally after a long pause.

"You know, I think that your friends will support your decision to go Akira, there's no point in being afraid." He stood up and stretched casually, though he probably didn't need to, before turning to look at her.

"Take the time you have left here and put it to good use. When you gone you're going to need memories to look back on so you won't feel so lonely, and Akira there _will_ be times were you feel lonely. So buck up and go make some memories with those kids." With this said Ryuji gave her one last fond smile and went back downstairs.

Akira sat in the comfortable silence of her room for a while mulling over his words and the wisdom in them. She knew he was right, there was no point in being scared in the end her fear only lost her time with them. She glanced at her clock again and smiled. Tonight, she would tell them because in less than a week she was leaving.

Keisuke's mother, a strict but kind woman let Akira inside and told her that the boys were in the garage playing cards.

As she was met with the smell of cigarette smoke and laughter, her gut suddenly dropped. She gripped the present she had brought for Keisuke and took a deep breath before opening the door and letting herself into the garage.

"Akira!" Kai shouted from his seat, he, Shinta, Hotori, Hotaru, and Keisuke were sat around a felt poker table, and each had turned to see who came in. She gave them a happy smile and a wave,

"Hey guys." She said setting the gift down next to a table of snack foods and walked to take a seat next to Kai. Keisuke was dealing and so sat across from her. He gave her a smile and dealt her in.

"Congrats Kei." She said to him as he handed her five cards.

"Thanks Akira."

Hotori and Hotaru each had a cigarette in their mouths, Shinta was munching on some chips and Kai had slid an arm over her shoulders instantly sensing something off about her but staying quiet.

"Where's Toua?" She asked placing two cards down and getting two new ones. Keisuke shrugged as he took her cards and then Kai's.

"Not here yet." He said indifferently. Kai gave her a slight squeeze.

"But he should be here soon." He said giving her a small smile. Akira nodded wondering if the two had made up yet.

An hour into the gathering Akira had won another hand much to Kai's disappointment. Her jitters were making her lose her appetite and even though Toua wasn't there yet, she couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Hey guys?" She asked staring at the table, and unable to look up.

"I know this is Keisuke's party and I really happy for you, butI have something sort of important to tell you." She finally looked up, Kai had removed his arm some time ago, everyone was watching her curiously, but openly. She looked at each of them before taking a deep breath.

"I'm leaving for Tokyo." She said and immediately she felt a little better. Everyone was silent for a moment before Kai scooted till his chair was turned towards her.

"What for?" He asked gently seeing the distress this was causing her.

" I got a letter from Tokyo university, so I'm going to law school there." She said with a small smile. The boys all shared looks of surprise before Shinta gave her a pat on the pack and happily said.

"Congrats!"

Keisuke shook his head in a teasing manner.

"You wait till my party to tell us? Way to steal my thunder woman." He gave her a wink and shuffled the cards again. Hotori had stood up to pat her shoulder as well while Hotaru laughed at her relived expression. Finally Akira looked to Kai. She had seen many an expression on the boy's face, but the bittersweet smile that he was showing at the moment was enough to make her launch a sneak hug attack on him.

"So you got a letter huh?" He asked hugging her back and patting her head like a proud parent.

"And I accepted." She finished for him pulling back and smiling up at him. Everyone turned as a huff of indignation came from the door way. Akira turned to see a frowning Tokuchi in the door way. The unusual frown on his face was directed at her.

"What sort of moron are you?" He asked glaring at her. Under his stare Akira was at a loss of what to say, never had he sent such a cold look at her, and never had he sounded so…unkind.

"Tokuchi!" Kai half shouted. The older boy glanced between Tokuchi's angry face and Akira's astonished and defeated one. He'd never seen her cry but he imagined that this was the look she would have before breaking down into tears.

"What?" Akira finally managed to say, her breath barely above a whisper. All the boys had gone silent and stared wearily at them. Tokuchi closed the distance between them in less than three large strides.

"I really thought that out of most the women around here you were rather intelligent, but if one moronic letter sends you swooning then you really are just a dumb bitch." He looked at her with his uncaring expression as he said this, as if he were seeing a meek bug scurrying across the room.

Akira's mind was in utter shock the moment spinning so quickly out of control, was he so angry that she would be leaving? Had she done something to earn such revulsion from Tokuchi? Just as quickly as her grief had come about her anger quickly rose to save face. She straightened her back and blinked back the repulsive tears that had threatened to spill and glared up at him.

"What's wrong Tokuchi? Angry that I'm going somewhere and you're stuck here? I thought that you were my friend, but now all I see is a selfish bastard who can't stand other people being happier them himself." In truth she wasn't happy at all about leaving, she hated to leave them, to leave him, but she would never admit that now. Tokuchi's face faltered from loathing to one she had never seen before; hurt. She clamped a hand over her mouth as if she could stuff all the words she had just slung at him back into the offending hole. Tokuchi's subtle hurt was apparently only seen by her, he balled his fist and with a deep searching look opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He swiftly turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Akira starred after him for only a moment and then hurried out the door after Toua, Kai and the others rather stunned had never really heard Toua speak so cruelly to Akira. The shocked silence tore into most of them, in anger for the hurt he caused.

"What the hell was that about?" Keisuke asked more to Kai than anyone. Kai who had a deep frown on his face, clenched his eyes shut and gripped his chair tightly to keep himself from running after them.

"I'm starting to think Tokuchi isn't as smart as I thought he was." Kai said seething. He took a calming breath and then sat back down after closing the door Akira left open. Shinta looked questioning at him.

"They have to work it out themselves, just leave them alone." He said grabbing the cards and shuffling. Hotaru's face changed from confusion to understanding.

"Oh, I got it. Well it's about time one of them said something I should think." He said motioning for Kai to deal him in.

Akira flew passed the front room and looked around before she caught sight of Keisuke's mother who pointed to the front door. Akira gave a quick nod and dashed after Toua.

She was about to fly down the street when she caught a glimpse of blonde hair from her right. She took a deep calming breath and walked towards him her heart in her throat. Toua was leaning his back against the wall of the bar a newly lit cigarette in his mouth, his face twisted angrily. Akira walked to stand next to him and lean against the wall too, Toua however refused to acknowledge her.

"Toua did you…did you mean that?" she asked afraid to look at him, her gaze downward. It was silent for a good while neither one budging, and Akira felt her throat getting tighter and tighter with each passing second.

"Did you really say yes?" He spat heatedly looking over at her. Akira sighed and looked up at him peevishly she had no clue he would be this upset at her leaving for a while.

"Should I have said no? No one else has accepted me." she said quietly. Toua's eyes grew even fierier and he turned towards her and used his height to tower of her.

"What the hell sort of crap are you spouting, no one will accept you? What about Kai? Shinta?" His voice lowered a bit and he slouched as if he were physically hurt, one hand resting against the wall just above her head.

"What about me?" He said quietly, so that Akira almost didn't hear it. She pressed backwards trying to melt into the wall. Toua's eyes narrowed his free hand had clenched into a fist.

"Should I have to write a letter to you for you think I accept you?" he whispered hoarsely inching closer to her his furious look scaring her. Tokuchi could lie to himself all he wanted, tell himself that she was better off, but in the moment the second it was actually the truth and not just an idle thought infuriated him. He really didn't know if he could handle it.

"what-" she started.

"He's not even worth your time; you're too good for a brat like him." Toua said harshly. Akira frowned now, thoroughly confused she had no idea what he was talking about. In lapse of judgment on her part Akira brought her right hand up and laid it flat against Toua's chest, feeling his pulse thundering underneath this was the closest she had ever been and she could almost feel a gravity tat urged her forwards.

"Wait, what are you talking about? Who's he?" she asked in a whisper trying to figure out when Toua had gotten the wrong idea. Toua's furious glare turned skeptical.

"What are you talking about?" He asked mirroring her question. Akira looked up at him staunchly aware of his tenseness and the pleasant heat he generated.

"I was telling the guys about my acceptance letter to Tokyo University. What did you think I was talking about?" she asked her fist clenching around his black shirt. Toua stood still and silent for a moment realizing that he had only heard the last part of the conversation, and how stupid he had been and about how much his careless angry words may have hurt her.

"I thought you were talking about the confession letter you got from that brat." He confessed rather lamely.

"Huh?" she said, just as equally lame. They just stared at each other again silent. Suddenly Akira let out a breathless laugh, and blinked her eyes moving them quickly from his down to his chest where her hand was clutching his shirt. She had never cried in front of Toua and really didn't want to start now.

"You moron." She whispered sniffing to keep the warm saline at bay. Toua's free hand unclenched and gingerly moved to her free hand and took hold of it. She made to push him away and brought her hand away from his chest to hide her tears before choking out a small sob. It literally felt like she had punched him with that famous right hook of hers when he heard her cry.

"Akira." He said quietly wrapping his arms around her and pulling her as close as her could, her smaller frame shuddering. It felt so natural, to hold her, he had wanted to do it for a long time her realized.

"Congratulations on your acceptance." He said placing his chin on top of her head. Another strangled sob fell out of her mouth and she suddenly wrapped her arms around him tightly, as though he would disappear.

"You stupid bastard!" she half shouted into his chest. Toua smiled a bit.

"I know." He said simply. Akira's hands took hold of his shirt and she pulled back from him a bit.

"I would never accept anyone's confession but yours, you jerk." She said suddenly looking up at him her face tear stained and her cheeks a nice cherry color. Toua processed this information before the softest look she had ever seen crossed his face. Akira felt almost horrified that she had told him that, but she had already said it.

"You caught on to that part huh?" He whispered. Her taut shoulders relaxed and she frowned at him almost painfully. Toua closed his eyes and gave a great sigh before he relaxed his grip on her a bit.

"You know I'm not capable of saying something like that right now right?" He said softly his mouth hovered over hers for a second. He couldn't ignore the gravity that pulled them either.

"You don't have to tell me something I already know." She told him reaching up on her tip toes till their lips came together. Toua bent his head a bit more till his melted against hers. She could taste tobacco on his lips and she smiled.

All a misunderstanding, that was all it was, but that was what it took to push the two stubborn kids into a slapped together love confession, that was sort of on the lame side and altogether dramatically but not fashionably late.

Akira never thought about marriage, or moving in with one's boyfriend, all she wanted was to be at Toua's side forever, whatever that entitled. Whether it was as his friend or something else she didn't mind as long as she could be near him then everything was alright.

Toua thought it was the dumbest thing a man could do marrying a woman and chaining himself down to one person. However he couldn't think of anyone better to have at his side, anyone else he would rather have. She didn't need such pretentious promises; hell the girl didn't need him to promise anything. She was fine with the way he was, and he wanted nothing but what she had to give. Akira would gladly give it to him; shove it down his throat if she had the chance. Toua didn't want to think what it would be like to look over and not see here there. He didn't want to think about the empty space she would leave behind while she was gone. It was painful.

They pulled apart, Toua wiped a stray tear from her cheek and Akira's body finally caught on to the fact that she had just had her first kiss and in accordance her face flamed red. At this Toua chuckled.

"How long till you leave?" He asked quietly, his arms still draped lazily around her.

"My flight is Friday." She answered lamely. Toua nodded, but his eyes never left her face.

"We should make those five days count then." He said before he sneakily caught her lips again and gently pushed her against the wall. Akira couldn't argue with that.

Friday Akira wore the blue dress her gramps had given her, and everyone had come to see her off even Keisuke. The brothers had given her the phone number to their uncle's grocery store and told her that they had given her store credit for a year. Shinta hadn't brought a gift but his bear hug was enough for her. Keisuke was had gotten a new digital watch from her had bought a pair of rainbow glass star earrings that were a bit juvenile, but Akira loved them. Kai had given her a new deck of cards and had said 'Don't get rusty while your away.' And she promised she wouldn't.

Toua was late, she knew he would be. He didn't want to say goodbye in front of everyone. So after all the guys and her gramps had left, except for Kai who promised to stay till she left, Tokuchi causally strolled into the airport and up to her. He gave Kai a sideways glance and the older boy gave Akira one last hug.

"Don't forget us, kid." He said and then left.

Toua looked down at her and at her dress before he took her hand and the two of them walked to her gate. The silence that lingered between them was understanding.

"Nice dress." He said as they sat down to wait for the boarding call. Akira smiled and nodded.

"Thanks." She squeezes his hand and laid her head on his shoulder. Toua leaned into her and watched the planes that landed and took off. He suddenly let go of her hand and pulled worn looking baseball from his coat pocket. The red lases had worn to a dark brown color, there scratches and nicks all over it. He silently held it out to her and she gingerly took it.

"That's the ball I one my first game of one outs with. Take it." He said watching as her hands turned the ball over and she examined it. He naturally snaked his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

"Thank you Toua." She said quietly, her tone wavering and she leaned into his side and let her hair fall into her face.

"I wish…I wish we didn't have to say goodbye." She said sadly looking up and out the window to see her plane taxi into its gate.

"Flight twenty oh two, for Tokyo is now boarding." Said a woman.

Akira stood and Toua followed. People passed the two to get in line to board. Akira tucked the ball into her carry on and then looked up Toua with a sad smile.

"It's not goodbye." He said simply pulling one hand from his pocket and setting it into the perfectly sized curve of her neck and gently but demandingly tugged her forwards. Akira bent her head up and closed her eyes following his lead. Toua bent down and chastely kissed her offered lips. When he pulled back she was staring at him with glassy eyes. He stared right back at her until they heard the last call to board.

"Take care of that ball; I'll want it back someday." He said before kissing her cheek and nodding for her to get in line. She smiled and gave a slight nod before she went forwards and he passed her to leave the building. She didn't look back, and Toua didn't either. He watched from the parking lot along with Kai as he plane took off towards Tokyo.

* * *

The Next Chapter will be after Akira has finished her Law Degree and Toua is employed with the Lycaons.


	3. Someone we know

3. Someone we know

Akira dropped her suit case with a loud thud on her apartment's linoleum floor and hastily ran to her bedroom and flung off her reserved professional matching pant suit as quickly as was humanly possible. Her eyebrow was twitching, her hands clenching every other second and her face was in what her co-workers called her demonic mode. As if it was sanctuary she fled to the bathroom and took a long hot shower.

After reliving some of the work days stress she threw on a pair of comfortable blue jeans, a worn out t-shirt and a dark blue pull over. She glanced in her mirror quickly and fluffed her half way dry hair that was resting on her shoulders and then tossed on her jogging sneakers. It was Friday and Friday meant walking down to the local sushi house, just around the corner, ordering a beer and then venting about her day to Naoka the waitress.

As the bell to the restaurant rang signaling a new customer a young woman with stylish bleached hair looked up and smiled a pretty smile at Akira. This is Naoka, always upbeat always smiling it was almost annoying but Akira liked her a lot, the girl could listen and listen well. The light brown friendly eyes shone a bit as she locked eyes with her older friend and then she winked and Akira gave a wave before she sat at her customary stool at the very end of the sushi bar.

"Hey there hot stuff." Naoka said bouncing over and leaning against the bar. Her hair, which reminded Akira of someone, was up in pig tails today and in tendrils.

"Hey." Akira said back as she leaned her elbows on the counter and then plopped her head down on the cold marble before giving a long sigh. Naoka giggled a bit, she found the older woman was always comically animated.

"Long day?" she asked sending a covert wave to the bar tender ordering Akira a beer that would most likely be on the house. The owner really liked Akira, though the two almost always bickered over how some sushi was to be handled or made. Akira liked him a lot too. Turning her head to the side and dropping her arms so that they now hung straight down she stared at Naoka.

"You've no idea, I had to sort through three cases which previously weren't linked at all, and now we find out that Yamogi-san, who is divorcing his wife, is sleeping with Homui-san who is his secretary, and as if hell decreed that my firm handles all the screwed up shit, her husband just filed for divorce with us too. None of them even knew that the other had filed with us. I think I'll transfer to public affairs." She closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath then reopened them with a determined look.

"Nao, I need a beer." Naoka smiled and within the next four seconds settled a frosted mug in front of Akira and expertly poured a beer for her.

Four beers and seven peppered tuna sushi pieces later, a large crowd wearing all matching baseball jersey piled into a little niche that faced a large TV.

"what's with that?" Akira asked just as Naoka was about to refill her beer. Naoka glanced over and then smiled at Akira.

"Some sort of play off or something, we just got that new TV so a lot of fans come to watch now." Akira nodded, then shrugged and continued with the owner, whom she fondly called old man, about just how much pressure you were supposed to use when forming the rice. Then a loud cheer nearly caused her to jump out of her chair.

Akira turned to see what all the commotion was about and glanced from the rabid fans to the large television screen on the wall. In one of her more distasteful moments Akira felt her mouth hang wide open and the beer that had once resided there spill out and onto her pullover.

"Nice one Akira." Naoka snickered as the older of the two women stared dumbfounded at the TV. Naoka, never having seen such a look on her friends face turned to look as well, but nothing special was on the screen just a baseball game.

"Are you alright? I've never seen you party foul before. Akira?" Naoka waved a hand in front of Akira's face only to have her deftly move it out of the way.

"It's him." She muttered moving from her chair, past Naoka and to the group of people who all had the same blue jersey on. She grabbed the first one she could.

"That man, the pitcher what's his name?" She asked suddenly still staring at him. Of course she didn't have to ask, she already knew. The wild untamed bleached hair, the steel glint in the eyes and that all-knowing, I'm going to win attitude told her exactly who the pitcher was the second she saw him walking to the mound.

"Duh, Tokuchi Toua the Lycons star pitcher!" but this sentence died off in volume as she watched him wind up and release the baseball. She looked at the boy after several moments in all seriousness.

"Where is the game being played at?" she asked. The boy, who was maybe in junior high pointed to the TV.

"It's a home game so Saitama." He said as if that much were obvious.

"Thank you." With that Akira bounded back to her seat snatched her wallet and quickly asked Naoka to put her drinks on the tab, and then ran out the door like the devil was at her heels. It was all instinct.

Akira was halfway to Saitama on the train when she seriously began to wonder about her mental health. What was she thinking? Up and running off the instant she saw him, at the time her entire being had demanded it but now on a train to a prefecture she'd never been to she wanted to smack herself. Then after her psycho analysis passed, her self-confidence plummeted would he even want to see her? Would he be angry? Would he have forgotten? After the first two years contact with her friends almost stopped completely, she could have kept up with it but school demanded ninety percent of her time and sleep the other ten. It wasn't that she forgot, but that she had rearranged her priorities, a fact she was extremely unhappy with herself about. The moment though she saw him she was a teenager again, and as corny as it sounded; all aflutter.

In the end she never got off the train, instead she went straight back home. She spent the next hour searching through her closet till she found the old shoe box that was lodged in the very back corner. She sat leaning against her bed and opened it, inside were her most valued worldly items. A picture of her parents and herself, a pair of rainbow heart shaped glass earrings, her gramp's old wrist watch and a ratty tatty old baseball.

Akira picked up the baseball and turned it this way and that as if examining it for the first time.

"I'll give it back to him." She said suddenly. It was a perfectly good excuse to see him.

"You are the biggest puss you know." She told herself. Why was she suddenly so anxious? She'd been nervous before while in court and when arguing a case but this was entirely different. It was almost like she felt physically sick with fear. That night she barely got a wink of sleep. And she had yet to see Toua.

If there was one thing good about working for Aihara it was that no one questioned you when you called and dropped his name. People didn't even ask what you wanted; they just gave you a free pass to do as you pleased. That's exactly how it was when Akira called the Lycons stadium, before she could even tell them why she wanted a visitors pass they'd already ok'ed it.

So now she stood at the press entrance feeling like she drank sour milk and was finding it hard to open the damn door. She had dressed casually in a nice gray pair of slacks, a sky blue blouse that hugged her form but wasn't too revealing and her white flats. With a deep breath she walked through the doors and began her search while tightly gripping her purse strap.

It wasn't too long till she found someone, he was huge, taller than Toua and broader and by the subtle looks of it older.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me where Tokuchi Toua is?" she asked in her business tone. The man turned upon hearing her and seemed rather surprised to see her. He glanced and saw the visitors pass on her blouse, and took in the business like attire.

"I think I saw him on the field, I could show you the way." He said motioning towards another door. Akira hesitated for a moment but gave the man a stressed smile and nodded.

"Thanks."

"Are you a friend of his?" the man asked as they made their way down the corridor. Akira let out a nervous laugh.

"You could say that, I didn't catch your name?" again the man looked surprised but at what she didn't know.

"It's Kojima, miss?"

"Oh, sorry that was rude of me. Kusanagi Akira." They shook hands briefly and suddenly they had walked through the doors.

It was almost as if an invisible wall had erected itself right in her path because she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of him, her earlier nausea coming back full force. Kojima stopped and looked between her and Toua who had yet to notice them.

"I'll just…I'll be back." Kojima dumbly stated before hastily retreating back the way he came. Akira was glad for it; this was awkward enough without adding a third party. She opened her purse and pulled out the excuse she had brought along and with one more deep breath stared out towards Toua.

Toua threw another pitch, he was bored and the prospect of another team meeting was driving him crazy. He threw another, and was about to do so again when he heard a soft definitely feminine throat clearing. Toua stopped and turned around completely unprepared for who he saw. For a moment they just stared, silent and still. Akira broke the silence first.

"Hey…I uh, I brought your ball." She said as awkwardly as was humanly possible. For a moment he didn't understand, and then he saw that tattered old ball in her hand. He stared at it critically, and with a satisfied nod, he could see she had cared for it well, looked back at her to noticed her slight blush.

"Kusanagi, Akira." He looked her over; she definitely wasn't a kid anymore. This Akira was all woman, though she was still about the same height.

"It's been awhile Toua." She suddenly broke their eye contact and stared at the fake grass, suddenly self-conscious, and if Toua caught it right she looked a bit shameful.

'And she should, five years not even a post card.' Was his first thought.

"I guess you're doing pretty well, huh?" she asked glancing around the stadium, then to him and then back to the ground.

She sighed he hadn't said a word, and she was really starting fear that he was angry with her. Suddenly angry that she had even opted to come here and humiliate herself Akira thrust the ball in his face and held it there till he took it, and without looking at him and praying he couldn't see the red deepening on her cheeks, said:

"I just wanted you to have this back that's all, it was nice having this one sided conversation, but I think I'll go drown myself now." With that she hastily turned to high tail it back to the train station, but a hand grabbed her wrist and nearly gave her whiplash. She stumbled as the larger Toua whipped her around like nothing till she was chest to chest with him and with wide eyes she noted the wicked grin he wore and the secretive spark in his eyes.

"All this time and that's all you can say? You moron." With that he seized her mouth with his and kissed her so thoroughly, that Akira was sure she'd had bruises. However at that moment she could have cared less.

In the midst of this sudden reunion, neither Tokuchi nor Akira had noticed that more than half the team now stood at the fields player entrance slack jawed and in utter awe at the sight they now beheld. Kojima shook his head.  
"I thought as much." He said. Ideguchi, whose eyes were almost bulging, pointed at Akira.

"Who the hell is that?" He asked in utter shock. Kojima shrugged his shoulders.

"She said her name was Kusanagi Akira." He said still watching the absurd sight.

"Kusanagi?" one player asked curiosity peaked. Kojima nodded.

"You mean _the _Kusanagi? I've heard about her on the news, she works for Aihara firm. Apparently she's never lost a case." The man stared at Akira's back and surmised that she was probably just as pretty in the front too. Kojima suddenly chuckled.

"Sounds like someone we know."

* * *

I know I suck at updating.

hope you liked it.


	4. I'm just a big kid

Ch. 4 I'm just a big kid.

**7:00am**

Akira, dressed and ready to go to work, stood just in front of her apartment door staring at the phone in her hand and the number that was displayed. Had it only been yesterday? Had it even really happened? The memory of it replayed over and over again.

_Toua's confident grin, as always made her nervous but excited and altogether in amazement. _

"_Ah, we have an audience." He said casually, his arm still tight around her, glancing behind Akira. In utter embarrassment she shoved her face into his jersey to hide it. A tick of annoyance had her eyebrow twitching, how dare he! _

"_Oi, what are you doing?" He asked amusedly. On instinct her right hand unclench and untangled from his shirt, snaked it's way around his arm and smacked him. Toua, for a moment was surprised but then he laughed well more like a small chuckled escaped but she heard it. _

"_Still just as violent I see. It's your fault though." He said. Akira disentangled herself and put a modest distance between them, her face still aflame. _

"_You…you…" Toua waited patiently for her to get her scrambled thoughts in order. She took a cautious peek behind her and caught sight of their audience and grimaced. Toua snickered. _

"_You may look like an adult, but your exactly the same Akira." It was that look again the one she had seen on Keisuke's birthday. That soft look, the impossible one that you would think he was unable to wear. _

"_Your timing stinks though." He said that look gone in an instant and his holier than thou look back but with a teasing smirk. _

"_Well excuse me, I had no clue you were in Tokyo, and when I saw you I suddenly rushed here I didn't think about convenience." She said standing at straight as she could. Toua nodded his head as if this was expected. _

"_Suddenly rushed here? Well that's expected." He said. Akira let out a small huff and a familiar comfort welled up in her gut, the feeling you get when you come home after a long vacation. She smiled at him and shook her head. _

"_Cocky punk." _

Toua had some sort of meeting to attend, and she had to get home in time to get some sleep, even though she barely got any with thoughts of the adult Toua constantly spinning around in her head. They had said a quick 'see you later.' And she had fished out her business card and gave it to him.

"Call me or I'll kill you." She had said. He had taken it without a word.

Now as she stared at her phone she was…not in shock but something similar. The minuet she had boarded the train home her phone had vibrated. Toua had sent her a message.

'Tomorrow eat dinner with me. Toua.'

She had replied as quickly as she could, like he would change his mind in the two seconds it took for her to reply.

'I get out at six. I'll meet you wherever.' She had texted. As soon as it was sent she wanted to take it back and text something cooler. I'll meet you wherever? Seriously? What a moron. What was she a love sick high school kid? Well…she wouldn't think about it. She had glanced at the text every now and then since the train ride home. He had texted her an address, and that was it, the extent of the conversation.

* * *

**10:30am**

Akira sat in her office, a stack of files on either side of her desk. Normally she would be shouting at interns for this or that, and normally her department was hectic. The interns and her assistant were curiously glancing at her closed door some in relief and some in worry. Not to say that Akira was a bad boss, or was abusive to her staff she was simply demanding.

At her desk she tried to concentrate of the case file in front of her, but after a few seconds the pages blurred together and she found her mind wondering off to him. She shook her head and tried to read again. A knock at her door surprised her and she jumped in her chair.

"Yes?" she said after collecting herself and sitting up straighter. Her assistant Yuyama Miho poked her head in and nervously smiled at her boss.

"Ms. Kusanagi, an intern is going to get coffee would you like some?" she asked good-naturedly. Akira blinked at her before nodding her head.

"Yes, please." She said before looking back at her files. Miho stood in the doorway, nervously lingering and switching her weight from one foot to the other. Akira looked up again, somewhat confused.

"Is there something else?" she asked. Miho smiled at bit unsure if it was in her best interest to ask Akira if something was wrong.

"Uh, well you see the staff and I was wondering if you felt a bit under the weather today? You seem…well it's just that…" Miho trailed off. She adored Akira and respected her, but just like everyone else in the company save Aihara she found Akira intimidating. But she was Miho's boss, and she and the staff were worried.

"It's just that I usually have you all running around like chickens with you heads cut off, right?" Akira asked frankly and not a bit insulted. She knew how she treated her staff, if you wanted to work for her you had better be able to take it. After all nothing she said or did was personal, this was business. Miho's eyes widened a bit and she fidgeted with the door knob.

"Yes ma'am." She said preparing herself for a berating speech about how the staff should be worrying about the current case and not the boss's welfare.

"I don't think this case will be difficult at all, I doubt it will go to court. I think you and the staff can handle that without me, now about that coffee." Miho suddenly nodded and excused herself. She closed Akira's door softly and turned around to see the entire staff staring anxiously at her. Miho's face was flushed and a small smile played at her mouth. Moving closer to everyone she motioned for them to get closer.

"She said that we a capable of handling the case on our own!" she said as if this was high praise. Every jaw in the room went slack and suddenly everyone was looking towards the boss's door.

"Something is definitely up; she even said please when I offered her coffee." She finished.

"Good god, this is it. She's either going to fire us all, or kill us off." One intern said a serious fearful look on his face.

"Oh shut it, just get her some coffee."

* * *

**1:45pm**

Akira glanced at her digital clock on her desk and sighed. It felt like an million hours since she had handed off the final draft of some prenuptial agreement to Miho. It had only been fifteen minutes. Now she was just frustrated, she felt like pulling at her hair and smacking her face into her desk. The mental image made her smile sardonically.

"That's it. I can't concentrate like this." She said sliding her chair back and standing up while stretching her arms. Today she was in a stylish white pant suit, with a red blouse that had clear sequence sewed on in the shape of different flowers. Her hair which she had cut short again was pushed behind her ears and curled around them. She grabbed her white matching jacket and slipped it on before grabbing her briefcase and shoving a few files in it her cell phone and her wallet. She turned off her lights and walked out of her office only to find everyone glancing at her from their work.

She turned to Miho, whose desk was just outside Akira's office.

"I'm taking the rest of the day off; I have a personal matter to attend to. Please make sure all today's work is complete." With a slight awed nod from Miho she stalked out of the department wondering why her staff looked at her like she was some sort of alien.

Once Akira was out of ear shot an intern exhaled loudly.

"Uwah! She left early! I've never seen her leave early." He said with a frown.

"She said a personal matter, wonder what's up?" A slender quiet intern asked readjusting her thick glasses.

* * *

**4:00pm**

Akira stood in front of her closet in naught but a plain white bra and matching boy short cut panties. Her hands were placed on her hips as she stared at the clothing inside as if she were about to plan a strategic attack.

"He didn't even tell me what sort of place we're going." She whispered to herself. She looked at the mirror on her closet door and stared at what he had reduced her too. She knew she didn't have dress to impress him. Hell he'd probably be more impressed if she showed up naked. But she wanted to look nice, and to have him think she looked nice. She face palmed at the thought.

"Baka." She said before grabbing an old comfortable pair of beige cargo pants, a sky blue polo shirt and an expensive pair of white sneakers that she had never worn before.

"I dare him to complain." She told her reflection. Then she was in the bathroom mentally debating whether she should redo her makeup or not. She barely applied any for work, just mascara and a lightly tinted lip balm.

"Leave it." She finally decided. Then she decided to watch TV to waste time. In reality this would be their first date. They had mainly hung out with the gang those last five days, and time together alone was hard to come by. It was his entire fault of course. It was confusing; she hated women who got worked up over this sort of thing. Wanting to be perfect for their date, stressing out over what to wear, what to talk about or if she should do anything particular. She had never gotten why they giggled and said 'Do you think he'll like this?' but now she sort of understood. It had been a long time; she wondered if she really was the same Akira he said she was. So she questioned and doubted, and found herself asking that dreaded question.

'Will Toua like the way I'm dressed? Will I be acceptable now?' so for the next three to four hours she tried to watch TV, and told herself many times to shut the hell up, it's Toua for god's sake.

* * *

**7:00pm**

Akira was relived she had dressed casually. She hadn't even had to take a train to get to the restaurant that Toua had set as the date. It was an old looking bar and grill sort of place with alfresco seating and also indoor seating. She stepped out of her cab and walked in and instantly spotted his blonde hair at the bar. For a moment she felt like she was at Big Mamma's bar again, all her earlier nervousness and doubt vanished at the sight of him. Why was she worrying? Toua was her friend, and more than anyone her knew her and accepted her.

She pointed to him and told the hostess who was about to ask her if she was meeting anyone, that she was with him. She walked over and as she had always done in Big Mamma's gave his head a playful flick. Toua turned and smiled a smile that told her he remembered the tradition.

"Have you been here long?" she asked as she took the stool next to him. Toua waved over the bar tender as she asked.

"I only just got here, want a drink?" He asked her as the bar tended smiled at her and welcomed her respectively.

"I'll have what he's having." She said pointing a thumb a Toua who had a tall frosted mug with amber beer in it. For a moment it was all silent, they both stared at the bar.

"So-" He said.

"Have-" She said. They both smirked at each other before her beer was sat in front of her.

"How have you been?" She asked first and then taking a generous gulp of her beer. Toua shrugged his shoulders and angled his seat so that he faced her. Akira's brow rose and she shook her head.

"You play for a professional baseball team and all you can do is shrug your shoulders?" she asked and the chuckled.

"That's recent, up until a few months ago I was still in Okinawa." He said sliding a menu towards her.

"How did it happen? I mean I just never pictured you…I mean you never really spoke about the future so I'm a little surprised." She said opening the menu and scanning through it.

Toua simply stared at her. It was almost not enough to just look. It was almost like the seven years had only been seconds and time had barely passed.

"I didn't plan anything if that is what you're wondering." He said leaning an elbow on the bar and resting his chin on it.

"I lost a game, and was kidnapped somewhat." He finished again waving the bar tender over. He looked back at Akira whose mouth was ajar and hanging to the floor. Well almost. His grin widened and he chuckled before using his free hand to close her gaping mouth.

"You lost? _YOU_? How? You're not in trouble are you?" she fired questions out in an astonished fury.

"Everyone loses every now and then, but your confidence in me is pleasing." He said enjoying her shock. Akira's shoulders slumped a bit, and she shook her head. To think even Toua could lose was disheartening.

They ordered their food and caught up on everything they had missed with each other. It was as if there was nothing either of them wanted to miss.

"So then you did it, you're a lawyer now." He stated just as they had finished eating. Akira suddenly felt a bit embarrassed and a fanit pink tint covered her cheeks.

"Yeah, I am." She said softly. Her whole face had softened and Toua's hand instinctively went to ruffle her hair. It even surprised him, the ease with which they had picked up right where they had left off.

"I bet your family is proud, especially your mother." He said quietly and with a genuine smile. Akira beamed at him and then gave a cute little laugh.

"I think so."

Toua paid for their dinner and drinks though Akira had said she would pay for the drinks at least, but the 'I dare you.' Look Toua sent her shut her up real quick and she stubbornly thanked him.

They walked out and decided to take a walk down the busy street.

"I live around here so it wasn't far, what about you?" she asked as they subtlety took a step towards one another.

"It's not far, ten minutes by train, I have an apartment in Saitama." He said pulling out a cigarette and lighting expertly. He put one hand in a pocket of an expensive looking pair of black pants. Akira chuckled, and that turned into a snicker. Toua looked over at her a question in her eyes.

"You know, you look like one of those yakuza movie stars." She said after calming her silent laughing. Toua looked down at himself and then gently smacked the back of her head.

"It's cool, I like it." She said simply rubbing the spot her smacked. She and Toua shared a look while waiting for the crosswalk sign to change.

"You've no idea Toua, how much I have missed you." She said before her easily stained cheeks grew rosy and she looked at the street again. Toua smirked and let out chuckle.

As they crossed the street a wickedly awful thought crept up from the blackest part of her brain.

'You cut contact with him.' It said. Akira's complacent smile drooped.

"Uh, hey Toua." Instantly Toua stopped, her tone of voice was off.

"What?" he asked tossing his spent cigarette into a nearby trashcan. Akira looked up at him and then felt so guilty that it hurt, she motioned to an empty bench and without really saying anything went and sat on it.

Toua, who had a nagging feeling about what this, was about followed coolly.

"I think I should just get this out of the way." She said suddenly, her hands clenched together in her lap.

"Alright then." Toua said leaning back and draping his long arms on the bench.

Why was it so hard to just say, hey I screwed up my bad, how would he react? She had to do it now though, no more miscommunication an early established rule.

"I want to…well it's. I guess really all I can do is say that I'm sorry. I should have called or written or…something. I could have but I didn't and for that I am really sorry Toua." She said quietly. For what seemed like a really long sixty seconds she waited for him to say something, hell to move. Then he did.

The arm that was behind Akira slipped to rest on her shoulders, his hand closed around her shoulder and he pulled her as close as she could get to before he chuckled reverberating malevolent laugh.

"You're going to make it up to me." He said and ominously but playfully glared her down.

Nervous. That look made her nervous, what did he mean? Akira gulped and with a panicky smile nodded her head.

"Right…"

After that he had taken her home, and at the entrance to the apartment building just as she had turned around to say goodnight, he caught her by the neck gently, just like he had at the airport and pulled her in for a quick goodnight kiss.

"Now get your butt home and squirm in worry." He said before he got back into the cab. Akira glared at him.

"Yeah well you get your butt home…safely…and…goodnight…" she said.

"Goodnight Akira." Then he closed the car door and he was gone. Akira's brain was fuzzy as she made it to her apartment.

"Squirm huh?" she said as she fell onto her bed.

"You know that's just what I'll do you jerk." She said with a slight smile.

* * *

Well, ahem. There you go.


End file.
